Saturday, 5 March 2011

Recently I saw a documentary about New York in 1977. Crammed into an hour and a half was the emergence of disco, The Loft and Studio 54, hip hop, DJs and their street light hotwiring, punk and CBGBs, the Son of Sam serial killer, the blackout, the suburbs on fire and being looted, swingers clubs and chaotic mayoral elections. I’d wager this sensory overload is somewhat akin to an album by The Go! Team. As you’ll see from their third album, the appropriately named Rolling Blackouts, they were born for those times. Most of the stuff here could easily have been made then or soundtracked that documentary. For example Tornado sounds like a cut up blaxpoitation movie, with kids breakdancing outside the movie theatre and cops sirens blaring past, while Apollo Throwdown is like double dutching it around the floor. When the clouds part and some space is allowed in, such as on recent single Buy Nothing Day, it all makes perfect sense. When this happens the hundreds of disparate pieces gel together sweetly rather than elbowing each other for room. It does often feel like there is a tendency to throw everything into the melting pot and see what works, rather than pick and choose and use some quality control. An instance when they do take a step back on Yosemite Theme, things are spacious and less cluttered so they work much better. It’s beautifully panoramic and slow moving.There are good parts to this album, and a good band here, if only the producer or someone would step in with some good advice. One to cherry pick from.